No class..

No class today as my teacher has injured himself...I've heard conflicting stuff about him injuring his ankle..and someone else saying he injured his back...anyhow..bottomline is he is injured and out of action at least for a week or so....hmmm..

So...I went for a fitball class instead..hahha. It was quite fun. We did a tonne of core related stuff on the gym ball, and things like side crow, crow, kneeling on the ball, pincha and vrishikasana on the ball.. it was cool! I actually find it much easier to do the arm balances on the ball, it gives just the right amount of support..and still feels like I'm actually doing the pose..I did fall on my face a few times though..

But anyhow, I missed primary series, so believe or not, I came home and went through half the series up to baddha konasana. I don't feel too tired out either, cos I skipped my vinyasas sometime during the marichyasanas. And of course with a loony smile on my face all the time because I've decided that there really IS something to this smiling and mula bandha connection. I think it makes everything lighter somewhat, especially vinyasas. I can't put my finger on whether its enhancing mula bandha or whatever, but there is a difference. Richard Freeman likes to say that its to keep the palate soft, but I don't know if that has anything to do with bandhas.

I've got to admit that its either this smiling thing working, or my core has definitely become stronger recently. I've also gotten a lot more awareness of the abdominal area, like I feel my muscles much more, not only when practising, but also during the day..when I'm just sitting or walking around. I'm also happy to discover that I didn't feel strained doing all the core stuff involved in the fit ball class at all. It was relatively easy, and I'm sure this would not have been the case if I did not practice ashtanga.

I also got into eka pada shirshasana today for fun. I almost binded both feet and hands on my own today in supta kurmasana. I could feel my fingers just brush, and my feet were crossed in front of the head. So, I couldn't resist sitting up and getting the leg up behind my head. Its actually getting easier. The right leg stays there pretty well, I can almost feel that I can soon remove my hands. The left side is still tight, and needs my hands to hold on tight otherwise it would slip off my back. I think the key being that my hamstrings have lenghtened a little while in external rotation and the hips are more open. Before this I'd always thought it was the hips that restricted me, but I realise that a big part of the problem was that my hamstrings were tight when my legs were externally rotated. It has no problems with straightforward forward bending though...I think (and I'm keeping my fingers crossed) that I'm pretty near opening up the stuff that needs to open to do leg behind head properly, if I just work on it consistently enough.

Also all the forward bending in primary series has done some evil stuff to my hip flexors. Its chronically tight. I have to stretch it out now and again throughout the day otherwise it seems to just bunch up around my hips. And the handstands have gotten to my shoulders..and I can feel the left side tightening up whenever I do downward dog and UD. I reckon I really need to start some more backbending practice to counter all the forward bends and handstands, otherwise I might start sliding in the backbends department. D is nowhere close to giving me any pf the backbends from second series at the moment. It doesn't seem to strike him that I should progress..hmmm.

So, I think I'm going to add some crim backbends into my home practice..perhaps ustrasana and bhekasana, and also viparita dandasana for my shoulders. I've tried viparita dandasana before, but find that I have really little mobility in the shoulders...it wouldn't hurt to keep working on that..